Pacific Press Publishing Association Nampa, Idaho Oshawa, Ontario, Canada www.pacificpress.com
Contents Taking a Stand for the Ten Commandments...4 Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me...10 Thou Shalt Not Make Any Graven Image...17 Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of the Lord in Vain...24 Remember the Sabbath Day...30 Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother...35 Thou Shalt Not Kill...41 Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery...46 Thou Shalt Not Steal...53 Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness...60 Thou Shalt Not Covet...67 The Eleventh Commandment...72 3
Introduction Taking a Stand for the Ten Commandments by Mark A. Finley It may seem surprising, but the Ten Commandments are creating a lot of controversy these days. In November 2003, the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court defied a federal court order to remove a two-and-a-half-ton monument of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the state courthouse. When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ordered Judge Roy Moore to remove the Ten Commandments, he argued that the moral law of God was the basis for all law, and therefore, its presence in the courthouse wasn t a violation of the separation of church and state. In a statewide poll, 77 percent of the residents of Alabama agreed with the judge. That controversy over the Ten Commandments captured national attention. At a pro-commandment rally near Denver, Colorado, Darrel Scott, the father of one of the shooting victims at Columbine High School, shared his conviction that our meeting is not about the Ten Commandments. It is about our young people and our children. Mr. Scott s point was clear to the overflow audience packing the auditorium. In a society of moral relativism burgeoning with violent crime, the Ten Commandments provide a moral compass. In an immoral world, they are the basis of morality. The Ten Commandments have served as a basis for society s laws for more than three millennia. Western governments have modeled their constitutions and established their laws on the moral code of ethics given on Mount Sinai. 4
Taking a Stand for the Ten Commandments The psalmist David reminds us of the eternal nature of God s law. He declared, All His commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness (Psalm 111:7, 8, KJV). He added, You are near, O Lord, and all Your commandments are truth (Psalm 119:151). The Ten Commandment law is the foundation of God s government. The Bible defines sin as the transgression [breaking] of the law (1 John 3:4, KJV). Sin is based not on our definition but on God s. Without the Ten Commandments, all morality is relative; there are no absolute standards. The apostle Paul wrote, By the law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). The law clearly states that some behavior is right and other behavior is wrong. Right and wrong are not matters of individual opinion. It s not a matter that s up for grabs, defined by societal norms or personal preferences. In a society that says, What s right for you may not be right for me and Each person discovers his own right path, God s law speaks with increasing relevance. Any society that turns its back on the moral principles of God s law is headed for chaos. Yet we live in a time in American history when doing your own thing is in vogue, when it has become popular to label as narrow-minded anyone who has well-defined moral convictions. What has this attitude toward God s law produced in our society? What fruits has moral relativism spawned? The prophet Hosea spoke of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind (see Hosea 8:7). This is precisely what is happening in Western society today. We have turned, every one, to his own way (Isaiah 53:6), and we are reaping the tragic result. The United States Justice Department reports that 1.6 million violent crimes (rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, and homicides) were committed in 2004. In a recent survey done by the Barna Group, 83 percent of the teens surveyed stated that for them, moral truth depends on the circumstances. Only 6 percent said moral truth is absolute. Perhaps this belief is one of the major reasons why 70 percent of all youth have experienced premarital sexual relations by the time they are twenty years old. Perhaps this is why the United States has the highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the industrialized world, with 5
The Ten Commandments Under Attack 15.3 million new cases reported each year. Maybe it s why divorce rates in the United States are among the highest in the world. Perhaps it explains why among Western nations, the United States has the lowest percentage (63 percent) of children who grow up with both biological parents, according to the 2005 annual report titled The State of Our Unions from the National Marriage Prefect at New Jersey s Rutgers University. With moral values crumbling all around us, maybe it is time we take another look at God s law. Maybe it s time not to debate whether the Ten Commandments should remain in the rotunda of a courthouse in Alabama but to ask instead if these moral principles are written on our own hearts. Maybe it s time for a lot less arguing about the law and a lot more keeping of the law. Contradictory and confusing It is somewhat contradictory and confusing for some Christian churches to argue on the one hand that the law is done away with in Christ while on the other hand they decry lower moral standards and shout loudly about America s need to take a stand for the Ten Commandments. One thing is certain: Christ didn t come to do away with the law, as some Christians contend. He came to live out the principles of the law as an example to believers in every age. And He has sent His Spirit to write the law in our minds and hearts. Jesus instructed us, Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill (Matthew 5:17). Jesus didn t come to destroy the fifth commandment, which declares, Honor your father and your mother (Exodus 20:12). He came to reveal throughout His childhood and adult life a loving example of faithfulness. He didn t come to do away with the sixth commandment, which declares, You shall not murder (Exodus 20:13). He came to reveal the dignity and worth of all human life. He didn t come to do away with the seventh commandment, which declares, You shall not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14). He came to model purity. In addition to dying for us, Jesus came to teach us how to live. In His life, we have a wonderful model of living in obedience to the Father. 6
Taking a Stand for the Ten Commandments Love for Christ never leads us to disobey His law. Love always leads to obedience, never disobedience. This is why Jesus said, If you love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:15). All genuine obedience comes from the motive of love. Obedience is a response to Jesus incredible sacrifice on Calvary. We don t obey to earn our salvation. Our obedience is the response of love to His great gift of salvation. We are not saved by our works (see Ephesians 2:8; Romans 3:27, 28). But any Christian who declares that salvation by grace makes obedience unnecessary misunderstands the gospel. The apostle Paul, in concluding his discussion on salvation, makes this point plain when he declares, Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law (Romans 3:31). When we come to Jesus, the response of our hearts is to obey Him. According to Hebrews 8:10, our Lord makes this marvelous promise, I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. What does God mean when He says that He will write His law in our minds and hearts? He writes the law in our minds so we understand it. He wants His will to be clear. The precepts of His Ten Commandments speak of our moral responsibility. They reveal plainly how to live. And He writes the law in our hearts so we love it. Then our obedience is not some legalistic requirement demanded by an overbearing dictator. It is the response of hearts that love God supremely. Codified love In fact, all of God s law can be summarized in one word: love. The Ten Commandment law is actually codified love. The first four commandments reveal how to respond in love to God. If we love Him, we will abolish all other gods in our hearts and worship Him supremely. If we love Him, we will place Him first in our life. We will demolish all idols and worship Him directly. If we love Him, we will respect and honor His name and always use it reverently. If we love Him, we will remember the Sabbath day. By taking a stand for God s ten commandment law, we also commit ourselves to love our fellow human beings. If we genuinely love, we will 7
The Ten Commandments Under Attack honor our parents and respect each other. We will treat each person with the utmost respect and dignity. We will respect people by not stealing their possessions. We will respect their reputation and won t defame their name by criticism or gossip. We will honor God and accept what we have rather than coveting what other people have. Think how radically our society would be changed if all of us lived by the principles of God s ten commandments! Think of what your life would be like if God s love flowed out of your heart in willing obedience to His law. The last book of the Bible declares that at the end time, God will have a group of people who reveal to a waiting world and a watching universe that God s way of life is best. Through His grace and by His power, they lovingly obey Him. Revelation 12:17 describes them as the remnant who keep the commandments of God. Revelation 14:12 pictures God s last-day people this way: Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The Bible s last message to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people (Revelation 14:6) is a clarion call to obedience. It is an urgent appeal to fear [obey] God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come (Revelation 14:7). In light of the judgment hour, God calls all of us to moral responsibility. We are accountable for our actions. We are responsible for our behavior. Christianity today evidences a lot of pretense. The final judgment will sweep it all away. It will affirm the truth that He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 2:4). God s last-day believers will take a stand for obedience. Believers saved by grace willingly obey His commandments. With the aged apostle John, they declare, This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His comments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). Motivated by love, Christ s true followers do not believe the law is a galling yoke around their necks. It is not a burden too heavy to carry. The passion of their lives is to please God. They find their greatest joy in obeying Him. If obeying God is a great burden, it is only because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of 8
Taking a Stand for the Ten Commandments God, nor indeed can be (Romans 8:7). The carnal mind wants to do its own thing. The unconverted heart only wants to please itself. If we are struggling to obey God, it is a matter of the heart. When the heart is fully surrendered to God, obedience is a delight. The new covenant promise is I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes.... I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses (Ezekiel 36:26, 27, 29). The God who calls us to live an obedient life also gives us the power to live obediently. Every command is a promise of what He will do in our lives. His grace not only pardons us for our sins, it delivers us from the grip of sin. God not only is available when we fall but also is able to keep you from falling (Jude 24, KJV). When we take a stand for His commandments, we stand in His grace. We stand by His power. We stand through His love as a testimony to the glorious fact that Jesus saves from both the penalty and the power of sin. So today, in Him and by Him and through Him, take a stand for His commandments. When you do, you will take a stand with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. You will take a stand with Joseph and Daniel. You will take a stand with Peter, James, and John. You will take a stand with faithful believers of all time. You will take a stand with Jesus Himself. Now that s something worth standing for, and He is Someone worth standing with. Mark A. Finley is an international evangelist and television speaker. He has written numerous books and magazine articles on a wide variety of religious topics. 9
The First Commandment Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me by Ty Gibson Don t you just love being included in a group photo? Me neither, but sometimes we have no choice in the matter especially if youknow-who is taking the picture. Next time it happens to you, I want you to notice which person you see first in the resulting print. Invariably, without even thinking about it, we all look at ourselves first. Our natural self-consciousness bears sway, and we immediately find ourselves in the lineup. Then we look at the others unless, of course, our picture doesn t look just right, in which case we never see the others at all. That s basically what we ve done with God s law. We look at the Ten Commandments, and all we see is ourselves. All we hear God saying is Thou shalt and Thou shalt not. We tend to notice only our part in the picture, and we miss God. So we see the law as merely commands we must keep for God rather than promises from God to us. The first commandment contains a sweet secret. It s not a secret God ever intended to keep from us; it s one we ve kept from ourselves. It s been there all along; whispering, as secrets do; awaiting our sense of need. The secret of which I speak is the gospel, which is the biblical word for the good news of what God has done for us in Christ. Like a treasure unhidden but unseen, the redeeming love of God is on display in the first commandment, but somehow, we ve missed it. I can almost hear you wondering what in the world I m talking about. Hey, Ty, you re saying, the law is the law, and the gospel is the gospel; they are two distinct things. And the gospel is not in the law; it s in the New Testament with Jesus at the cross. 10
Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me Let me explain. Ask just about any congregation of Christians what the first commandment is, and all voices will say the same thing: Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3, KJV). But they re wrong not for what they include but for what they exclude. Go to any Christian bookstore and look at the Ten Commandment wall hangings and engravings. Again, the first commandment reads, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Wrong again! Go look at the Ten Commandment monuments in courthouses across America. They, too, say the law begins, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Nope, that s not accurate! We have edited the first commandment and to our detriment, I might add, because the part we ve ignored contains the gospel. We ve drained the law of its muscle and missed its larger intent by omitting God s part from the equation, which happens to be the part where the transforming power resides the power that would enable us to live in harmony with the law. You may have already turned in your Bible to Exodus 20 and think you ve proven me wrong. Sure enough, you re saying to yourself. Just as I suspected, the first commandment does read the way everyone thinks it does: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Actually, it doesn t. Look at Exodus 20 again, and this time notice all the words in the first commandment all the words, no editing. In the modern translations, like the New King James Version, you can even see the opening quotation mark, which indicates the exact point at which the words begin on the tables of stone: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me (verses 2, 3). All those words were engraved on the tables of stone and are, therefore, vitally part of God s law. But, I can hear you retorting, that first sentence isn t part of the law because it doesn t tell us something we ought to do or ought not to do. Rather, it tells us something God has done. Exactly! That s the whole point. The Ten Commandments begin with a declaration of something 11
The Ten Commandments Under Attack God has done, not with what we ought to do. First, He says, I am the Lord who has..., not You shall... or You shall not... God never intended merely to give us a list of moral mandates and then say, OK now, get the job done, and if you re successful, I ll let you into heaven. He knows us far better than that. He knows our utter moral weakness and our need for supernatural help. Therefore, the law begins by declaring what He s done for us, not what we ought to do. Our deliverance, God s achievement What exactly does the first commandment say God has done? I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. He has delivered us from bondage that s what He s done. By His own mighty power and super-ingenious wisdom, all by Himself, without our assistance, He has achieved our salvation. How did He do it? The whole story is wrapped up in the law s opening declaration. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage is a direct reference to the singular, epic event by which the children of Israel walked free from Egyptian bondage. That event was called the Passover. The means of their deliverance was the shed blood of the lamb. God instructed them: Every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.... Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.... It is the Lord s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast.... Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.... So it came to pass, on that very same day, that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 12:3, 6, 7, 11 13, 51). This whole event was highly symbolic. The shed blood of the Passover lamb pointed forward to Jesus Christ laying down His life at the cross for the deliverance of the human race from slavery to sin and guilt. When Christ approached the Jordan River where John the Baptizer was preaching, the prophet recognized the Savior for who He was and de- 12
Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me clared, Behold! the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29). Speaking of Jesus dying on the cross, Paul said, Indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7). The entire New Testament informs us that the Passover ritual was a prophetic parable pointing forward to the self-sacrificing death of Jesus. So, when God gave His law, He specifically began by pointing back to the Passover; and by so doing, He pointed forward to the Cross. Before uttering any Thou shalt or Thou shalt not, He reminded the children of Israel of the accomplished fact of their deliverance from bondage, which He alone achieved for them. But the deliverance proclaimed in the first commandment encompasses more than their liberation from slavery in Egypt; it also, in a fuller sense, proclaims the deliverance that Christ accomplished for humanity as a whole. There you have it the gospel of God s saving grace enfolded in the law. It is a perfectly accurate theological statement to say that the Cross of Christ is explicit in the Ten Commandments. By placing the shed blood of the Lamb as the opening truth proclaimed in the law, God has communicated richly to us. He has said, in essence, I am the Lord who has saved you by the atoning death of My Son. Now, walk in the victory I have achieved for you. Love Me and all your fellow human beings as I have first loved you, and do so in the only way you can in the empowering light of the Cross. I have set you free in My Son; now be free. I have saved you in Christ; now be saved. I have crossed every line but My integrity and your free will to bring you back to Me. Now, let Me love you into complete healing and victory. The truth is, my friend, the only way you ll ever be saved from sin is to be loved out of it. The only way you ll ever truly live in obedience to God s law is to be loved into it. Raw willpower won t do it; a sense of guilt won t do it; feelings of duty won t do it; not even the fear of eternal loss and desire for the rewards of heaven will do it. Only God, and God alone, can break the power of sin. He knows this and comes eagerly to our rescue. Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God helps us understand what He has done for us and how we are to respond: I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you (Isaiah 44:22, NIV). 13
The Ten Commandments Under Attack Beautiful! Did you notice that God does not say Return to Me and then I will redeem you or Return to Me so I can redeem you? Absolutely not! It doesn t work that way. Rather, He says, Return to Me for I have redeemed you. Our part follows His part, not the other way around. God doesn t build on our achievements; rather, we build on His. Our lawkeeping doesn t activate God s grace. Rather, His saving grace activates our law-keeping. The power for all true obedience is present in our realization of what God has already done for us in Christ by virtue of His unearnable grace. We are simply called upon to come alive to and walk in the reality of the deliverance He has won for us. First, there is the objective fact of our salvation totally attained in the person of Christ apart from any contribution of our own. This is the front-seat truth of the Ten Commandments, without which the law degenerates into a mere idealistic code of ethics void of power. Second, there is the subjective experience of this salvation, to be received by faith in the God of grace who has done this for us. Christ did, in actual fact, live a life free from sin while bearing our human nature. Taking full responsibility for our sin as if it were His own, He was crucified while bearing our humanity. Then He arose from the grave victorious over sin and death, ascended to heaven, and was enthroned at the right hand of the Father, still bearing our humanity. Once we understand the good news of what manner of God this Ten Commandment God is as He is revealed in Christ s voluntarily dying on the cross for our salvation then the second part of the first commandment becomes our delight. When God says, You shall have no other gods before Me, He does so against the beautiful backdrop of His selfless love for us. First He empowers; then He commands. First He tells us who He is and then who we may become in His image. In that context, how can we refrain from loving Him and Him alone supremely, with all our heart, soul, and mind? (See Matthew 22:37.) No god worth considering There literally is no kind of god worth considering other than the God we see in Jesus. Only a God who would die for His creation could possibly 14
Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me call forth true worship from our souls. Only by love is love awakened, and in Christ, God has given us all the love we need to love Him in return. The false gods of ancient times who demanded suffering and death to appease their wrath and every false god prevalent in our world today belie their pretense to deity by a chilling absence of self-sacrifice. In the first commandment, the one and only true God distinguishes Himself by pointing to the Cross as the core reality of His identity. Suddenly, as we discern the gospel in the law, we consider all of His commandments to be promises and all His biddings to be enablings. He gives us no commandment for which He has not already unleashed ample power to obey. The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:5 8). According to this passage, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to flood our hearts with God s love by continually directing our attention to its supreme demonstration at the Cross. Before we see and believe the love of God revealed in Christ, we are without strength by which Paul means we are morally impotent to obey the law. But not anymore! Now that we know of God s incredible sacrifice on our behalf, a whole new energy has gripped the deep places in our fragile, fearful souls. Whereas once we could not, now we can. The impossible feat of overcoming sin and living in obedience to God s law becomes more than possible it is inevitable when the love of God empowers us. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37). The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20, KJV). The Cross, unequivocally made foremost in the law by its placement in the first commandment, is the divinely ordained catalyst for obedience to the whole law. Merely telling people they ought to obey God s law is like telling them they ought to jump high enough to touch the moon. What people need is supernatural empowerment, not mere moral demand. The 15
The Ten Commandments Under Attack empowerment of which I speak is the pure, unadulterated love of God, and it is accessed at only one Source. That Source is Christ, who alone is the light and life and love of God in personified form. When any human heart knows Christ really knows Him as the true revelation of God s character then a nonhuman, supernatural energizing begins to flow steadily into that enlightened soul and washes it clean of everything disharmonious to the Source from which it flows. Notice how Paul explains this process: The self-sacrificing love of Christ powerfully moves us as we discern how truly universal and free it is: namely that He literally died for everyone without exception, so that the whole human race was accounted for in His death. Now then, in the realization of this truth, the power of self-centeredness is broken in our hearts, so that we live no longer for ourselves but for this One who died for us and rose again (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15, author s translation). The point Paul is making here is that when we really comprehend and believe the love of Christ revealed at the Cross, it compels us (PC NKJV), controls us, (NCV), urges and impels us (AB), becomes the very spring of our actions (Phillips), has the first and last word in everything we do (The Message). So powerful an influence does this love exert over the heart that takes it in that Paul says it cuts straight through to the root cause of every sin which is the impulse to live for the self above all others. Acquaintance with Christ s love causes us to willingly though not without a struggle cease living for ourselves and begin living for Him. His love is the only power in all the universe strong enough, beautiful enough to conquer the enslaving urge toward self-centeredness that rules within our fallen nature. Once the love of God possesses our souls and breaks the power of self-seeking, obedience to God s law becomes not only possible but also inevitable. Our souls will take up the language of King David, I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart (Psalm 40:8). For the God who says, You shall have no other gods before me has identified Himself as the very God who has willingly suffered and died to deliver us from bondage. Ty Gibson is the co-director and speaker of Light Bearers Ministry. 16